Today is a big day for Kiri Louisa Grant (Te Whānau-ā-Apanui), also known as 'L.O.U' because the solo artist has just released her first single, Love On You.
Te Ao Tapatahi talked to the 26-year-old earlier about how her love for singing and performance started when she was a child, beginning with kapa haka.
“That is where I learned to sing from a very young age, so I feel like it definitely comes through in my music and I’ll hopefully be writing Maori songs as well.”
But Grant found as an adult that she struggled with the confidence needed to pursue a solo career.
“In the background I had opportunities present themselves to me: It's like I’ve had the gods or my ancestors, my tīpuna telling me ‘you know here is the path you should be going on’ but I just veer off the other way.”
With the help from artist Mistee K, Kiri was able to focus her energy and achieve the goal of releasing her first single.
Kiri's tane is in the Navy and was posted to Portsmouth in the UK. It was there that Kiri started busking on the streets gaining confidence, self-belief and practising her performance.
Recently, things didn't go quite so smoothly as Kiri spilt water on a laptop losing all her work. Kiri had to start her single from scratch using an IPad and a cell phone mic to rerecord and edit her single.
Kiri rushed to finish her song so she was able to release it on her 27th birthday, which is today.
“It signifies and represents who I am. It’s behind my name, which stands for love on you and, when you listen to the lyrics, it just explains my journey through music and how I suppressed wanting to being a musician most of my life and now I’ve made the decision to just pursue it.”
“I think I needed to love myself fully before I took that leap if that makes, so I’m practising what I preach.”
If you want to follow L.O.U’s journey, go to louofficialmusic on Instagram and TikTok.